Selecting suppliers in line with The Hydro Way

It is important for Hydro to be able to deliver quality products at the right time and price while assuming responsibility for society as a whole.

The Hydro Way concept covers our characteristic way of doing business, and has contributed to our successful development. It has three core ideas – our mission, our institutional talents, and our values – Courage, Respect, Cooperation, Determination, and Foresight.

In Hydro we have corporate directives for how we as a company should act. These include our People Policy, Code of Conduct, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSE). We also have an Integrity Program to combat corruption and violations of human rights. This program emphasizes relevant legislation and voluntary commitments, and provides guidelines for preventing negative incidents. It is also designed to support our long-term business positions.

Responsible behavior

Hydro wants to create sustainable value for our shareholders, employees, suppliers and the communities in which we operate. We wish to encourage open and constructive dialogue about responsible conduct. We are determined, and set ambitious goals to ensure good results and continuous improvements, both for ourselves and for our suppliers.

It is important to be able to deliver products of the right quality to our customers, at the right time. Through an open dialogue we want to work with our suppliers to build good relationships and bring about improvements. We believe there is a positive correlation between cooperation with our suppliers and low costs. 

Our expectations of our suppliers are based on the same requirements we expect to be fulfilled by our own organization. Hydro has developed systems for selection of suppliers, and for helping suppliers develop and improve their own practices – when it comes to product and process quality, performance, service, HSE and social responsibility.

By further developing our procedures for evaluation, selection and monitoring of suppliers, we want to improve supplier standards. By cooperating with our suppliers we can encourage sound practices and create long-term relationships. In our view it is more constructive to develop suppliers than to cut them out.